An animal group trying to find homes for stray and abandoned cats has been banned from this weekend’s cat show – putting the lives of 40 shelter cats in limbo.

Volunteers from the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control – who have placed nearly 60 cats in the last two years at the show – have been barred from setting up an adoption booth at the International Cat Show event at Madison Square Garden today and tomorrow.

“We don’t know what to do,” said Marilyn Blohm, a CACC spokeswoman. “We have 40 cats – all spayed and neutered – ready to go.”

The fur apparently started flying over the CACC’s policy of euthanizing animals when it runs out of shelter space. The agency took over the thankless job when the ASPCA declared itself a “no-kill” facility in 1994.

Blohm heard the news when CACC staffers were making a series of last-minute arrangements with show organizers yesterday.

“We were told that they no longer wanted to be associated with a kill facility,” she said.

The CACC’s euthanasia policy did not seem to bother cat-show organizers in 1997 and 1998, when CACC was allowed to rent space for its adoption table. In 1997, CACC even won the cat show’s “Unsung Hero” award.

And the cat show had already cashed CACC’s $750 deposit check.

Cat-show producer Vicky Markstein fired back, saying that CACC refused to provide certificates of health and vaccinations for their animals.

Untrue, says Blohm.

“Every cat who comes into our shelter is vaccinated and treated,” she said. “We provided every piece of information they requested.”

Blohm believes that cat-show organizers made a conscious decision to deny CACC access to the show to avoid being associated with a facility that puts down animals.